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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is lashing out at PECO on social media for proposing new rate hikes in the face of record profits.
“Last year PECO raised prices on Pennsylvanians and made an obscene $814 million in profit,” Shapiro wrote on X on Friday.
“They could have used that money to offset people’s costs — instead they passed it onto shareholders,” he continued. “Now they want to jack up prices even more. It’s pure greed, and I’ll do everything I can to stop it.”
In an email, the governor’s office said he “believes PECO should withdraw their rate case immediately. If they do not reconsider, the Governor will use all means at his disposal to prevent PECO from raising rates on hardworking Pennsylvanians.”
It’s unclear what Shapiro can or will do to prevent the rate hikes. WHYY News has reached out to PECO seeking a response to the governor’s office’s statement.
PECO’s 2025 net profits, as reported by WHYY News, came after the utility raised electricity rates for customers by 10% in 2025. As a result, net profits rose from $551 million in 2024 to $814 million in 2025, a nearly 50% jump.
Calvin Butler, the president and CEO of PECO’s parent company, Exelon, earned more than $15.6 million in 2025.
The utility is seeking to raise rates again in 2027 by 12.5% for electricity customers in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Suburban natural gas customers could also pay an increase of 11.4%. If approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the increase would raise a typical electricity customer’s bill by $20.08 a month and a typical gas user by $14.52 a month, according to PECO.
PECO sought and received rate increases four times between 2015 and 2025. PECO’s gas division received approvals to raise rates three times between 2020 and 2024.
The rate of return, or return on equity, for investors that PECO is seeking with this new rate hike is 10.95%, which is much higher than the national average, said Marissa Gillett, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and a former chair at the Connecticut Public Utility Commission where she advocated for more meaningful public input.
“My take on the governor’s tweet, what caught his eye in the situation was the 10.95% [return on equity] that they’ve embedded in their request,” Gillett said. “That is alarmingly high. That is almost 100 basis points higher than the national average.” The national average was 9.75% in the first quarter of 2025.